![]() The portrait illustrated above shows English singer Sarah Harrop, fittingly, as a muse of music. In my opinion, her most interesting portraits are those depicting female sitters as personifications of mythological figures. She was popular among the English nobility and other British luminaries, such as the great painter Sir Joshua Reynolds (who was Kauffman’s close friend), actor David Garrick, and Lady Emma Hamilton. Through her portraits and history paintings, she became one of the most successful artists of 18th century Europe. Swiss painter Angelica Kauffman (1741-1807) was one of the greats amongst the Neoclassical artists. In addition to her great history paintings, Kauffman was a very successful portrait painter who was always in high demand for commissions. Angelica Kauffman, Self-Portrait, 17701775, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK. Bates), as a Muse, c.1780, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ, USA. Her history paintings primarily depict episodes from classical antiquity and often include elegant female figures.Īngelica Kauffman, Portrait of Sarah Harrop (Mrs. She was the only female of her time to do so, and she was very successful at it. However, she pursued history painting anyway. ![]() Kauffman had to learn anatomy from studying plaster casts of important statues instead. This could only really be achieved through the study of the male nude, which was forbidden to women. This was partially because it was considered too large and ambitious, but also because it required a keen understanding of human anatomy. Most 18th century women didn’t pursue history painting. For many centuries, history painting was by far the most celebrated artistic genre in Europe. They tend to be very large and feature many figures in poses and costumes inspired by classical antiquity. History paintings depict important, dramatic events from history, literature, mythology, and the Bible. She lived in England for 15 years and achieved her greatest success there.Īngelica Kauffman, Telemachus and the Nymphs of Calypso, 1782, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA.Īngelica Kauffman specialized in the prestigious genre of history painting. ![]() Turner, Francisco Goya, Samuel Morse, Hokusai and Jacques-Louis David. Kauffman worked in Rome for several years before moving to London in 1766. Find out more about the greatest 18th Century Painters, including J. Although she started out by contributing to her father’s projects, she received her first independent commission for a portrait while in her early teens. In an era where serious artistic training was largely unavailable to women, having an artist as a family member was a huge advantage.Īs her father’s assistant, the young Angelica traveled around Europe, experiencing great artworks, meeting important people, and learning on the job. Kauffman learned the art of painting from her father. One of her contemporaries called her “possibly the most cultivated woman in Europe”. She was also intelligent, well educated, and fluent in four languages. Kauffman was very talented in both fields. Angelica Kauffman, Self Portrait, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, USA.Īngelica Kauffman was born into an artistic family, with a father who was a painter and a mother who was a musician.
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